INGLEWOOD : Woman Who Raised Possible Kidnap Victim Interviewed

Inglewood police said Monday that they had interviewed a woman who helped raise a man believed to have been kidnaped as a child 17 years ago, but investigators would not say whether the questioning shed light on the case.

The woman who raised Henry Miller, 22, of Oakland was interviewed last week in Northern California, Sgt. Alex Perez said. He declined to say where she lived or divulge details about the interview, other than to say that police were investigating her story.

“We have 17 years to cover. It’s going to be awhile,” Perez said.

Police had yet to interview Miller, who believes he is Kevin DeWayne Portis--who disappeared from an Inglewood park in 1976 while walking from his home to a market.

Miller and members of the Portis family held a tearful meeting in Los Angeles last week. It was arranged after police received a telephone call from an Oakland woman, who had been raised with Miller and said she believed he was Portis. Police had yet to conclude Miller and Portis were one and the same, although the possibility is “pretty good,” Perez said.

Miller spent the New Year’s holiday in Las Vegas with Willie Mae Ruffin of Hawthorne, who believes she is his real mother. That trip out of state may have been a violation of Miller’s probation for a 1990 conviction for selling cocaine, but Miller will probably not be punished, said William Gengler, a state Corrections Department spokesman.